Kirby: Canvas Curse – Cart Run FAQ

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|        ||   Kirby: Canvas Curse  ||        |
|        ||      Cart Run FAQ      ||        |
|        ||       Version 1.0      ||        |
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| ...... ||     Copyright 2005     || ...... |
| ...... ||       NDS_Master       || ...... |
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|         |Table of Contents       |         |
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|  _| |_  |1. Introduction         |   (X)   |
| |_   _| |2. Ranks                | (Y) (A) |
|   |_|   |3. Points               |   (B)   |
|         |4. Races                |         |
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|________/              Nintend[]DS \________|
|           |MIC.              []            |
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Copyright 2005 NDS_Master
=========================

This guide is property of NDS_Master and is copyrighted and 
protected by United States copyright laws and international treaties. 
Therefore, the use of this guide in any websites, publications, or any 
other public documents is illegal and strictly prohibited. This guide may 
not be posted on the Internet or any publications without my express, 
written permission. If you wish to use this guide you must contact me with 
your request.

===============
1. Introduction
===============

This is NDS_Master and welcome to my Kirby: Canvas Curse Cart Run FAQ! As 
you’ll see from my contributor page, I prefer to write in-depth complete 
guides for the majority of the games that I have played. With Kirby: Canvas 
Curse, however, I decided that I didn’t quite want to compose an entire 
game guide. With so many medals scattered through so many levels, it would 
take a long time to map out all of the locations and write them all out. 
Then I would add in in-depth strategies to Rainbow Run, the Jump Game, and 
the Sub Games. It would be a mammoth guide by the time I finished.

Since it would be so long, I decided I would take a simpler approach to 
Kirby: Canvas Curse. I decided to only focus on making a single guide for 
one of the sub games. When I saw someone was already making a guide for 
Paint Panic (my favorite sub game), I decided that I would go with a Cart 
Run FAQ. Here it is. It’s not long, but I hope that it will provide you 
with plenty of useful information.

I don’t have a section on “How to Play” in this guide, so I’ll put that 
here. In Cart Run, you are Kirby and you race in a cart. Your opponent is 
King Dedede. Since the cart goes automatically, you don’t need to worry 
about accelerating or braking. Those are two things you do not get to 
control. The one thing that you do control, however, is the direction of 
your cart. Press your stylus against the touch screen, and move it up or 
down. By doing so, you will move the line generator that guides that cart.

Not only do you want to move the generator to move the cart into food 
(which speeds you up), but you also want to move it so that the generator 
slams into and destroys enemies. Kirby is weak, so he will take damage 
whenever an enemy hits him. He only has four health, so if he is hit by 
enemies four times then he will die. Use health and Maxim Tomatoes to 
recover his health. That’s basically all there is to the game. Have fun!

========
2. Ranks
========

Ranks are basic. When you complete a race, you will be given a rank 
depending on how well you did (how many points you acquired). The ranks 
range from Crawler to Rainbow Hero with ten in between, so the ranks will 
give you an accurate reading of how well you did in that level. Because 
there are so many of them, it is easy to vary between a low and high rank 
in the shorter races. In Level 3, however, the points separating each rank 
is much larger, making the reading more accurate.

AAA: Rainbow Hero
AA: Warp Speed
A: Light Speed
B: Speed of Sound
C: Bullet Train
D: Super Express
E: Express Train
F: Commuter Train
G: Locomotive
H: Walker
I: Toddler
J: Crawler

=========
3. Points
=========

Rankings are great, but you cannot get good rankings if you do not acquire 
a lot of points during the race. As hard as it is to believe, winning is 
not the key to getting a good ranking. You need to take time out of your 
race to specifically defeat enemies so that your score will increase. Since 
the generator is invincible, you can defeat enemies simply by hitting them 
with it. Although Kirby can kill enemies when he hits them, his vitality 
will decrease by one and his speed will be drastically reduced if he does. 
Use the generator to eliminate foes, which requires carefully planning and 
thinking ahead.

Blocks = 50 Points
Food = 20 Points
Food Combo = 190 Points
Health = 5 Points
Maxim Tomato = 200 Points
Hammer = 150 Points
Waddle Dee = 100 Points
Bronto Burt = 150 Points
Soarar = 200 Points
Course Completion = 500 Points
King Dedede = 2000 Points
Time Left = 50 Points/Second

Now, you will notice that you get points for how much time you have left at 
the end of the race. The quicker you go, the more points you receive. 
However, you only receive 50 points for each second you have remaining. If 
you take a second out of your time to destroy an enemy such as Soarar, you 
will receive many more points than if you merely saved the extra second. 
Always do everything in your power to destroy hordes of enemies. Also, you 
will get an additional 20 seconds after you complete each course. If you 
finish each course in under 20 seconds, you can gain even more points to 
add to your score. Race quickly and destroy enemies to gain high points.

========
4. Races
========

Points matter. Rankings matter. However, you won’t get either points or 
rankings if you don’t take the time to actually race. When you race, there 
are three things that you should race for: fun, ranks, and a medal. Fun is 
the most important reason. If you aren’t playing Kirby to have fun, you 
shouldn’t be playing. Ranks are another good reason to play Cart Run. I 
enjoy racing to get AAA rank, and you can race for ranks on any level. 
Playing to earn a medal is something that you can only do on Level 3, and 
you need an A rank (48,000 points) to get it. A medal is necessary to 
complete the game 100%, so it is also an important reason to race.

Each of the sub games in Kirby: Canvas Curse has three levels. The first 
two levels you play when you play the sub game as a boss game. After you 
beat levels one and two as a boss game (your rank does not matter), you can 
play the boss game as a sub game. Levels 1 and 2 in the sub games are 
fairly easy, but there is a major jump between the second and third levels. 
The third level is much harder than the first two levels. But why read 
about generalities? Let’s look at each level of Cart Run and learn some 
things.

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Level 1
-------

Level 1 is obviously the first level in Cart Run. It is by far the easiest. 
It features three courses that you must race through. The courses are a 
little different than their Level 2 and 3 counterparts, but they will 
provide a challenge nonetheless. King Dedede is extremely easy to beat, so 
you will have little trouble gaining the 2,000 points from winning. Here’s 
a look at the requirements to earn each rank.

13,000 = AAA
12,000 = AA
11,000 = A
10,500 = B
10,000 = C
9,500 = D
9,000 = E
8,500 = F
8,000 = G
7,500 = H
7,000 = I
0,000 = J

As you can see, you need at least 13,000 points to get the AAA rank. Since 
Level 1 is only for fun and ranks, you should strive for the AAA rank. Now, 
acquiring that rank will take a little effort, but it is worth the effort 
in the end. First, you need to win. Gain food whenever you can, and take 
advantage of the bonus speed that two pieces of food gives you.

While winning will help you, alone it won’t help you get the triple As. You 
need something more. To get the additional points to win, look to your 
enemies. They provide an excellent way to gain a lot of extra points 
easily. Focus on munching on a lot of food, but focus even more on finding 
and destroy enemies. Even though the race consists only of three courses, 
you can gain a lot of points by devastating the enemies in those courses. 
King Dedede’s hammers are also a way to earn points. It will take practice 
and a lot of enemy bashing, but a AAA rank is achievable.

-------
Level 2
-------

Level 2 is similar to Level 1. Instead of three courses, however, it has 
four. That makes it slightly more challenging. It takes a little more to 
achieve a really high rank, but it can be done. Sorry, I have not mapped 
out every single point value for every single rank. Just race well, gain 
lots of points, and the rank will fall into place. If its of any use to 
you, I got a AA rank after gaining 15,000 points in Level 2 (I only raced 
once). If you do a little better, you are sure to be able to gain a AAA.

-------
Level 3
-------

Okay, so you’ve ignored what I wrote on Levels 1 and 2. They won’t help you 
get a medal, so you just didn’t read them. Fine. I’m okay with that. Level 
3 is all that matters. (How can you be so boring? Have fun with the game!).

I admit, not everyone cares about medals. Some people care about having fun 
and getting all AAA rankings. This section is for you as well. 
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how to get a AAA rankings in Level 3, as I 
have only achieved an A rankings myself. (Sorry) To get an A ranking, you 
need to get 48,000 points. It’s a hefty amount, but one that is achievable.

Unlike Levels 1 and 2, which only have a few courses, Level 3 has a lot. 
Five separate courses make life difficult, and three laps add to the 
insanity. That’s fifteen courses in all! If you want to score well, you 
need to race not only well but consistently. If you do good on lap one but 
ruin lap three, you most likely will not be seeing an A pop by your score 
at the end of the level.

If you desire the medal attained by getting an A, you will have to do more 
than simply race well. You will need to gather many points if you are to 
succeed. Whenever you see an enemy, try to destroy it. The points to be 
gained from enemies far outweighs the points to be gained by additional 
time. Before I go too much into the important of defeating enemies, let’s 
look at the point distribution for Level 3.

 7,000 Points - Completing all fourteen courses
+2,000 Points - Winning the race (fifteenth course)
+3,000 Points - Finishing with a minute left
=12,000 Points

Finishing with a minute left and beating King Dedede may seem like an 
unreasonable add-on to the point distribution table. However, it is almost 
essential that you finish the race quickly (it’s okay if you don’t quite 
have a minute left) and win the race. It may be possible to get an A 
ranking without doing either, but it much easier to do both and do well in 
the race at the same time.

Since you get 12,000 points simply by racing, you only need to acquire 
36,000 points during the race. That is much to get, but you don’t need to 
gain all of that in one course. There are fifteen courses to earn all of 
the points. 36,000 divided by fifteen is 2,400, which is the amount you’ll 
need to secure per course. Assuming that you get, say, fifteen regular 
pieces of food and five food combos each course, that’s 1,250 points you’ll 
earn just by food. That leaves only 1,150 points per course for you to 
steal from enemies. That doesn’t seem so bad, now does it? Defeat two 
Waddle Dees, three Bronto Burts, one Soarar, three blocks, and one hammer 
and you have that amount. If you can manage to destroy more than one 
valuable enemy, you can easily attain those points. That’s not even 
including the Maxim Tomato! It will take work, but if you collect lots of 
food and take time to eliminate enemies, you can do it. Focus on enemies 
whenever you can (I cannot stress this enough) if you really want to get 
the A ranking and the medal that accompanies it.

Look for specific enemies whenever you race. While you may not destroy them 
the first time you see them, you can take advantage of their position later 
on. For instance, in course five there is a section where three Waddle Dees 
fall onto the course. This happens twice, and a Soarar is usually with the 
first group. If you destroy them all with the generator, that’s 800 points 
you can earn in just a few seconds. In another course, three Bronto Burts 
are stationed next to some food. That’s 450 points in one second if you 
destroy them, and that does not even count the food! Pay attention to 
hordes of enemies and slaughter them whenever possible. Also, don’t be 
afraid to take out blocks if you have a speed up; they give you valuable 
points. When you collect a lot of food and destroy a lot of enemies, an A 
rank is sure to be yours. Just keep playing and you will soon achieve it.